Jack Shakely: Let's take the plunge off the 'cliff'

5:39 PM,
Dec. 6, 2012

Written by

Jack Shakely
Los Angeles Times

In February 2003, 450 economists, including 10 of the 24 living Nobel laureates in economics, made a public plea to President George W. Bush not to enact what was officially called the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003. The act, better known as the Bush-era tax cuts, would not do what they promised, the economists argued. Instead, they said, the cuts would "worsen the budget deficit, increase inequality, decrease the ability of the U.S. government to fund essential services, while failing to produce economic growth."